Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Vegas! {part two}

And we’re back for the next edition of Vegas recap (if you missed part one, click here to get caught up)…got your popcorn ready? Great. Let’s get to it.

If you don’t recall, yesterday I left off at the point where we arrived in Vegas. It was about 11am Vegas time when we pulled into the Excalibur, a mere 24 hours since we left KC. So we wandered into the hotel, saw oodles of other 311 fans, and got in line to check in. This process took some 30 minutes (which feels like 3 hours when all you want to do is get to a room and take a shower).

On our way up to our rooms we ran into Ash & Zach (you may remember them from here) who took the easylazy smart route and flew to Vegas. They had just gotten there as well, and were about to head out to explore The Strip. We weren’t quite ready for that yet (and by “we” I mean Matt, Casey and Nate. Some of us actually slept in the car…others, not so much).

Finally we found our way to our rooms (all on the 27th floor – they couldn’t have humored me and my OCD and given us an even number? sheesh!), and the first thing Matt did was crawl into bed. I’m not kidding. He didn’t even wait for our luggage to get delivered. I guess it’s exhausting to be up for 30+ hours, driving for 14 or so of them – I wouldn’t know. :) After our luggage was delivered (and I didn’t tip the guy…oops. talk about a nasty look…), and the boys came and got their stuff, I decided to crawl into bed as well and try to get a little shut eye.

That lasted for all of 30 minutes. Really, who can sleep in Vegas? Matt, Nate and Casey apparently. So I was up, in Vegas, in a hotel room, bored out of my mind. I took a shower, I got dressed, I did my hair, I did my makeup, I re-did my hair, I watched Ellen, I farted around on my laptop… Matt snored. I texted with Jeff and realized that he was up too, so he came by to say hi and bring me a (much needed) beer. That helped with the boredom. So now I was in Vegas, in a hotel room, drinking a beer, watching the local news. A little better, eh?

Finally, 2 hours later, the boys had risen, got showered and ready, and off to explore Vegas we were. The first thing all of us wanted to do was eat. It only took us an hour of walking around to finally decide on a restaurant. The ESPN Zone at New York New York it was.

We had a lovely waitress who graciously took a group photo for us. Don’t we all look just famished?! Please note the insane number of TVs in this place…I think I count 5 just in this photo. It. Was. Awesome. Especially at the start of March Madness. Definitely worth the hour it took us to decide.

We cheers’d our huge beers to the fabulous days in Vegas ahead of us…

And then the husband decided to ruin another otherwise adorable photo… *sigh*

We then proceeded to scarf down enormous plates of food, and guzzle our giant beers. It was heavenly. Once we were done, we were all about to chug the rest of the beers before heading out when our waitress came by and brought us – wait for it – TO GO CUPS. I’m sure to everyone that has been to Vegas before this is nothing to write home about, but for us Vegas Virgins it was AMAZING! So we gathered our plastic cups-o-beer, and headed out to explore the Vegas Strip.

This image was taken on one of the bridges, and I really like it. I was kicking myself for not having my tripod with me, though, because I really wanted to get this same shot but leave the shutter open and get some light trails from the car lights. But really, who walks around Vegas with a tripod?? So this will just have to do.

A few more images of Vegas at night-

I just loved the fountain show at the Bellagio. We may or may not have stopped to watch it 3 times that night…

Here is a video Matt took of one of the shows we watched. You’ll have to excuse a couple of things – 1) Jeff singing along to the entire song (it was the Titanic theme song…who doesn’t know that one?!), 2) the constant flash and “click” from me shooting right next to Matt, along with the view of me smack dab in the middle of the show (thanks hubs) 3) the random shot of Matt’s beer can (I guess it was a cheers?), 4) the also random shot of the back of Casey’s head at the end (I think he was trying to show his 311 hat…) 4)Everything else that makes it a totally amerature video. Despite all of that, I still think it's a pretty cool video! Good job hubs!

And then of course it was time for another fun and exciting random group photo.

I didn’t make it in most of these ‘group shots’… I was, well, you know, taking the picture.

So we continued our trek up and down The Strip, and as more and more beer was involved, more and more photos like this began to emerge…

According to my camera this image was taken at 3:38am. That would be 1:38am Vegas time, I believe. Either way, I will spare you the remainder of the drunken photos. Lets just say the night ended shortly after this (and by shortly after I mean like an hour and a half…), and it was one of those nights where the minute you hit the bed you are sound asleep, er, passed out. Ahh, I love those nights.

Fast forward about 6 hours (because who really needs sleep in Vegas…) and 311 day is upon us!! We may have been a little slow to get up and moving, but nothing could hinder the excitement of the day. I mean, this is the whole reason we drove 24 hours after all!

The previous night, we had seen a merchandise stand set up in one of the hallways at Mandalay Bay. The line was pretty long, though, so we decided it would be much smarter to come back in the morning when they first opened. Clearly we were drunk when we made that decision, or just stupid, because smarter it was not. When Matt and Casey got back to that spot on Thursday morning, there were easily 100 people in line. But nobody wants to wait in line during the actual concert, so we decided to just tough it out and wait. I don’t think we realized just how long that wait would be. Jeff, Nate and I finally got ourselves down there to join in the waiting game, and 3 hours later we all had shirts galore. Yes, that’s right, I waited in line for 3 hours for a t-shirt. Actually 2 t-shirts. And a sweatshirt. And 2 koozie cups. Talk about dedicated.

Once we finally had our stinkin’ t-shirts, we went back out to Las Vegas Blvd to pick up the wandering where we had left off the night before. I have to tell you, as we were walking down The Strip, I was in one of the best moods I think I’ve ever been in. It was 311 day, I was walking down Las Vegas Blvd with my hubby and some of our best friends, there were other 311 fans everywhere, it was sunny, I had a beer in one hand and my camera in the other…I could go on and on. It was just a fantastic day all around.

So naturally, I took some more photos of everything we saw.

This might be one of my favorite images of them all… I just love me some sun flare.

We stopped for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was super cool. Although they didn’t have any 311 memorabilia…

Then we stopped at the Paris hotel, and took a ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower

Of course the view made for some pretty awesome images…

Then, before we knew it, it was after 5:00 and we had an hour to hoof it back to the hotel, get showered and changed, and head out to the main event!

So for now, I’ll let you digest all of the awesomeness we saw during the day on 311 day, and tomorrow I’ll be back with a recap of the-awesomest-concert-ever. Sit tight!